Hotly debated US domestic surveillance bill moves toward House vote

By Moira Warburton and Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to reauthorize a controversial U.S. domestic surveillance program was headed toward a possible vote in the House of Representatives as soon as this week after clearing a key procedural hurdle.

The vote on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is due to expire on April 15, had previously been pulled twice in the face of bipartisan opposition. It cleared the House Rules Committee in a 9-2 vote late Tuesday.

Hardline Republicans and left-leaning Democrats object to elements of the FISA bill that state that the vast mountains of data scooped up by the U.S. intelligence apparatus can be scanned by law enforcement without judicial authorization.

The bill's proponents have responded with surface-level reforms that would leave the underlying bill largely unchanged.

With Republicans holding a thin 218-213 majority in the House of Representatives and opponents promising to torpedo the legislation unless it came with a warrant requirement, its passage looks uncertain.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson could instead propose extending FISA for a short period, possibly leaving it to the next Congress to deal with the issue.

The White House and intelligence officials – most vocally FBI Director Christopher Wray – have lobbied heavily against the warrant requirement, threatening dire consequences if officials are forced to go to a judge before using the data.

"Congress would be making a policy choice to require us to blind ourselves to intelligence in our holdings" if it imposed a warrant requirement on the FBI, Wray told the American Bar Association on Tuesday, according to text of his prepared remarks. "I can assure you that none of our adversaries are holding back or tying their own hands."

(Reporting by Moira Warburton and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)